I'm a primary (elementary) teacher who runs an after-school art club. This blog records all of my art activities with instructions and examples of work that my club produces. I also post artwork from my usual class.

Friday, 6 June 2014

Hot and Cold Portraits with year 6 (5th grade)

I was asked to do an art afternoon as a treat for some of the older children who did not go on a trip. I attempted something a bit trickier than the projects with the art club as these children are 2-3 years older. I decided to go for a Hot and Cold Portrait and I'm very satisfied with the results.

2. Use a pencil or black pen to trace the photograph. (We traced because of time constraints, you could always draw a self-portrait using mirrors etc)

3. We then photocopied the tracing paper onto drawing paper to give us a clear space to work on.

4. We then measured up the page and dotted every 3cms and did the same across the top.

5. Draw the lines across the page but not across the face/hair/clothing.

6. Use a compass to draw 5-6 different size circles across the picture. I recommend one across one of the eyes, across part of the mouth and a couple around the hair.

7. Use warm colours and colour in all of the areas outside of the circles. Whenever you hit a line you need to change colour. Try not to have the same colour next to or on top of each other. You will also notice that I used different patterns for the hair to add a different creative aspect.

8. Do the same thing inside the circles but use cool colours.

9. And you're done! Of course, you could do the colour scheme the other way round. I tried it and it came out as shown below. I left it up to the class to choose which they would prefer to do.

Here are some excellent examples of the work from the class that I took. Well done!